Obama calls Putin over Ukraine; Orthodox Church warns against separatism

Tension rises in the south-east of the former Soviet republic, while Moscow rejects accusations of interference. Metropolitan Atony of Boryspil and Brovary : we asked our priests to be patriots and not allow separatism to spread.

Moscow (AsiaNews
) - As tension rises between Russia and Ukraine - where the interim president
Alexander Turchynov has signed an order authorizing a special intervention in
the East against pro-Russian militias who have occupied several institutional
buildings and are demanding autonomy from Kiev - the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
- Moscow Patriarchate continues to make appeals for peace and the safeguarding
of territorial integrity. "We
strongly condemn the attempts to deprive Ukraine of its territory and to
include them in other states" Metropolitan Atony of Boryspil and Brovary, administrator
of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate said
in an interview the UNIAN agency. "For
this reason - he added - we are deeply concerned about the protests in Kharkov,
Donetsk and Lugansk, we believe that they are a real threat to our state".

The Metropolitan
has also stressed the importance of good relations between pastors and their faithful
particularly now: "We encourage our priests to be patriots and not allow separatist
sentiment to spread in the community". Antony
then points out that the Ukrainian Church - Moscow Patriarchate (the only one
that the latter recognizes canonically) has about 13 thousand parishes
throughout the territory of Ukraine and not only in the east and south,
traditionally Russian majority areas.

Despite its ties
with Moscow - which could suggest an alignment with the Russian positions - the
Ukrainian Church has always advocated the importance of territorial integrity
against separatist forces, instigated - said the West -by the Kremlin. A
few days ago, the leader of the Ukrainian Church, Metropolitan Onufry of
Chernovtsy and Bukovina, personally wrote a letter to President Vladimir Putin,
with an appeal to "avoid dividing the Ukrainian state and armed conflict
between our two peoples."

The Russian
leader, in his last call, April 14 , with U.S. President Barack Obama has
rejected the accusations of Russian interference in Ukraine aimed at destabilizing
the political situation, calling it "unfounded speculation". Moscow
calls on the Ukrainian authorities to open up round table talks with all
parties present on the ground in the region to draft a new Constitution. The
two heads of state were, however, have agreed to meet after the summit on 17
April in Geneva (including the U.S., Russia , Ukraine and the EU ) to further discuss
a "peaceful" solution to the crisis in Ukraine. ( N.A. )

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Obama calls Putin over Ukraine; Orthodox Church warns against separatism North Asia Russia Tension rises in the south-east of the former Soviet republic, while Moscow rejects accusations of interference. Metropolitan Atony of Boryspil and Brovary : we asked our priests to be patriots and not allow separatism to spread.

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